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RETAIL
January/February 2018 StudentHousingBusiness.com
76
Programming Retail
With thoughtful design and planning, retail in student housing projects can create the perfect amenity
for both students and the surrounding community.
By Katie Sloan
T
The prevalence of mixed-use student hous-
ing developments is on the rise. On-campus,
the industry is seeing an influx of properties
featuring a live-learn aspect that brings aca-
demics to the students' doorsteps. Off cam-
pus, developers are incorporating everything
from restaurants, coffee shops and services
to fashion boutiques and event space. While
the addition of retail can seem like an easy fill
for ground floor space or a helpful amenity to
students, there are many aspects to consider
and careful planning is imperative from proj-
ect conceptualization to ensure that the space
remains healthy, and vibrant, not empty.
"The first step
to ensuring retail
will be successful
in any develop-
ment is appropri-
ately underwriting
and conceptual-
izing the project.
This includes iden-
tifying the cor-
rect retail mix for
a project and what
the merchandis-
ing plan is going
to look like," says
Matthew Stein,
vice president and
director of MSC
University, a division of MSC Retail special-
izing in retail in university settings, including
student housing. "If you're fortunate enough
to have a project that is well located for retail
and the opportunity is such that retailers are
going to want to be there, what really defines
success is co-tenancy and creating a unique
customer experience within the larger neigh-
borhood and trade area."
"There's a misconception that retail on the
ground floor of a student housing building
operates in a completely different function
than retail in the larger real estate landscape,"
continues Stein. "Retail needs high visibility,
foot and vehicular traffic, and strong demo-
graphics and psychographics. The nuance in
the higher education sector is being able to
capture what are incredibly sophisticated cus-
tomers. The types of retailers that work vary
based on the market. A retailer that is going to
be wildly successful in Athens, Georgia, may
be different than a retailer that is going to be
wildly successful in Tuscaloosa, Alabama."
Another factor influencing the success of
retail in a housing development is location, as
oftentimes what makes a good student hous-
ing property doesn't make for a good retail
site.
"There can be successful retail sites — with
strong traffic counts, great visibility and easy
access — that are also good student hous-
ing sites (due to their proximity to campus),
but rarely does a premier student housing
site automatically equate to a great location
for a traditional retail site," says Dusty Bat-
sell, vice president of asset management and
development for American Campus Commu-
nities. "If you think about a lot of the markets
that we're in, they're traditional college towns
with smaller populations and thus less shop-
pers — it's pretty rare for a student housing
development to fall in that sweet spot. It has
to make sense on the retail side for it to work,
and when we work with tenants, a lot of the
time we like to drive home that you have
to make sure you're evaluating the site out-
side of the fact that there's going to be 1,000
residents above it. It needs to be able to drive
sales year-round, whether or not those stu-
dents are going to be there."
Andrew Wiedner, chief investment officer
of Core Spaces, seconds the importance of
catering to the surrounding community as
well as the student population.
"In order for retail to be successful, there
has to be a draw beyond the residents liv-
ing above," he says. "Many of the retail uses
complement the residential and are heavily
used by our residents, but there needs to be
additional demand from the community in
Georgia Heights at the University of Georgia in Athens was developed by EdR.
The property offers 45,000 square feet of retail space occupied by CVS/pharmacy, J. Crew,
SunTrust Bank, DP Dough, Cinnaholic, DressUp and Treehouse.
MATT STEIN
VP and director of
MSC University,
a division of MSC Retail